搜索

x
中国物理学会期刊

实时锁定1550 nm单光子线偏振态

CSTR: 32037.14.aps.74.20251055

Real-time locking of 1550 nm single-photon linear polarization state

CSTR: 32037.14.aps.74.20251055
PDF
HTML
导出引用
  • 针对环境扰动引起单光子偏振态随机漂移的问题, 本文提出了一种实时锁定1550 nm单光子线偏振态的实验系统. 通过使用单光子偏振调制技术操控偏振旋转器实时锁定任意1550 nm单光子线偏振态到同轴检偏器的光轴方向, 在2000 s内单光子偏振漂移限制在0.0011 rad以内, 这种具有稳定线偏振态的1550 nm单光子脉冲可以直接用作偏振编码或相位编码量子密钥分发系统的单光子源.

     

    The key security of quantum key distribution (QKD) is guaranteed by the basic principle of quantum mechanics, which makes it possible to combine information theory security communication with one-time encryption. The key is usually encoded on the polarization dimension or phase dimension of a single-photon. It is considered that the birefringence effect of single-mode fiber leads to a random variation of polarization state, which would induce the bit error rate. So it is of great significance to keep the single-photon linear polarization state stable for both polarization encoding QKD system and phase encoding QKD system. By using the single-photon polarization modulation technology, the single-photon linear polarization state periodically varies with the external modulation signal. The flicker noise is suppressed effectively, and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of single-photon counting is increased as indicated by the phase-sensitive detection with a lock-in amplifier (LIA). The error signal is generated by demodulating the modulated single photons and it is used to lock an arbitrary 1550 nm single-photon linear polarization state to the optical axis of in-line polarizer (ILP). The modulation frequency reaches up to 5 kHz, which can eliminate the influence of low frequency flicker noise. The LIA demodulates the single-photon pulses by using 78.1 Hz filter bandwidth, with a time constant of 1 ms and a filter slope of 24 dB. The SNR of error signal is 20. The zero-crossing point of error signal represents the single photon’s linear polarization state aligned to the optical axis of ILP. The linear slope around the zero-crossing point for the polarization state angle versus the error signal amplitude is 1.267 rad/V. When the negative feedback loop does not work, the polarization drift of single-photon pulses is 0.082 rad due to the random environmental noise. However, by using the single-photon polarization modulation technology, the polarization drift of stable single-photon pulses is limited to 0.0011 rad within 2000 s through the precise control with a polarization rotator, and the corresponding Allan deviation reaches the minimal value of 6.7×10–5 at an integration time of 128 ms. The advantages for the single-photon polarization modulation technology are as follows: i) the linear polarization state drift is compensated in real-time at the single-photon level; ii) single frequency polarization modulation can be extended to multiple frequency polarization modulation in order to achieve simultaneous locking of multiple linear polarization states of single-photon pulses; iii) these 1550 nm single-photon pulses with the 0.0011 rad linear polarization state stability can be directly used as the single-photon source in either polarization encoding or phase encoding QKD system.

     

    目录

    /

    返回文章
    返回